ASTA. You know you asked me to arrange them for you while you were away.
ALLMERS. [Pats her on the head.] And you have actually found time to do
that, dear?
ASTA. Oh, yes. I have done it partly out here and partly at my own rooms
in town.
ALLMERS. Thanks, dear. Did you find anything particular in them?
ASTA. [Lightly.] Oh, you know you always find something or other in such
old papers. [Speaking lower and seriously.] It is the letters to mother
that are in this portfolio.
ALLMERS. Those, of course, you must keep yourself.
ASTA. [With an effort.] No; I am determined that you shall look through
them, too, Alfred. Some time--later on in life. I haven't the key of the
portfolio with me just now.
ALLMERS. It doesn't matter, my dear Asta, for I shall never read your
mother's letters in any case.
ASTA. [Fixing her eyes on him.] Then some time or other--some quiet
evening--I will tell you a little of what is in them.
ALLMERS. Yes, that will be much better. But do you keep your mother's
letters--you haven't so many mementos of her.
[He hands ASTA the portfolio. She takes it, and lays it on the chair
under her outdoor things. RITA comes into the room again.]
RITA. Ugh! I feel as if that horrible old woman had brought a sort of
graveyard smell with her.
ALLMERS. Yes, she was rather horrible.
RITA. I felt almost sick while she was in the room.
ALLMERS. However, I can very well understand the sort of spellbound
fascination that she talked about. The loneliness of the mountain-peaks
and of the great waste places has something of the same magic about it.
ASTA. [Looks attentively at him.] What is it that has happened to you,
Alfred?
ALLMERS. [Smiling.] To me?
ASTA. Yes, something has happened--something seems almost to have
transformed you. Rita noticed it too.
RITA. Yes, I saw it the moment you came. A change for the better, I
hope, Alfred?
ALLMERS. It ought to be for the better. And it must and shall come to
good.
RITA. [With an outburst.] You have had some adventure on your journey!
Don't deny it! I can see it in your face!
ALLMERS. [Shaking his head.] No adventure in the world--outwardly at
least. But--
RITA. [Eagerly.] But--?
ALLMERS. It is true that within me there has been something of a
revolution.
RITA. Oh Heavens--!
ALLMERS. [Soothingly, patting her hand.] Only for the better, my dear
Rita. You may be perfectly certain of that.
RITA. [Seats herself on the sofa.] You must tell us all about it, at
once--tell us everything!
ALLMERS. [Turning to ASTA.] Yes, let us sit down, too, Asta. Then I will
try to tell you as well as I can.
[He seats himself on the sofa at RITA's side. ASTA moves a chair
forward, and places herself near him.]
RITA. [Looking at him expectantly.] Well--?
ALLMERS. [Gazing straight before him.] When I look back over my
life--and my fortunes--for the last ten or eleven years, it seems to me
almost like a fairy-tale or a dream. Don't you think so too, Asta?
ASTA. Yes, in many ways I think so.
ALLMERS. [Continuing.] When I remember what we two used to be, Asta--we
two poor orphan children--
RITA. [Impatiently.] Oh, that is such an old, old story.
ALLMERS. [Not listening to her.] And now here I am in comfort and
luxury. I have been able to follow my vocation. I have been able to work
and study--just as I had always longed to. [Holds out his hand.] And all
this great--this fabulous good fortune we owe to you, my dearest Rita.
RITA. [Half playfully, half angrily, slaps his hand.] Oh, I do wish you
would stop talking like that.
ALLMERS. I speak of it only as a sort of introduction.
RITA. Then do skip the introduction!
ALLMERS. Rita,--you must not think it was the doctor's advice that drove
me up to the mountains.
ASTA. Was it not, Alfred?
RITA. What was it, then?
ALLMERS. It was this: I found there was no more peace for me, there in
my study.
RITA. No peace! Why, who disturbed you?
ALLMERS. [Shaking his head.] No one from without. But I felt as though
I were positively abusing--or, say rather, wasting--my best
powers--frittering away the time.
ASTA. [With wide eyes.] When you were writing at your book?
ALLMERS. [Nodding.] For I cannot think that my powers are confined to
that alone. I must surely have it in me to do one or two other things as
well.
RITA. Was that what you sat there brooding over?
ALLMERS. Yes, mainly that.
RITA. And so that is what has made you so discontented with yourself
of late; and with the rest of us as well. For you know you were
discontented, Alfred.
ALLMERS. [Gazing straight before him.] There I sat bent over my table,
day after day, and often half the night too--writing and writing at the
great thick book on "Human Responsibility." H'm!
ASTA. [Laying her hand upon his arm.] But, Alfred--that book is to be
your life-work.
RITA. Yes, you have said so often enough.
ALLMERS. I thought so. Ever since I grew up, I have thought so. [With an
affectionate expression in his eyes.] And it was you that enabled me to
devote myself to it, my dear Rita--
RITA. Oh, nonsense!
ALLMERS. [Smiling to her.]--you, with your gold, and your green
forests--
RITA. [Half laughing, half vexed.] If you begin all that rubbish again,
I shall beat you.
ASTA. [Looking sorrowfully at him.] But the book, Alfred?
ALLMERS. It began, as it were, to drift away from me. But I was more and
more beset by the thought of the higher duties that laid their claims
upon me.
RITA. [Beaming, seizes his hand.] Alfred!
ALLMERS. The thought of Eyolf, my dear Rita.
RITA. [Disappointed, drops his hand.] Ah--of Eyolf!
ALLMERS. Poor little Eyolf has taken deeper and deeper hold of me. After
that unlucky fall from the table--and especially since we have been
assured that the injury is incurable--
RITA. [Insistently.] But you take all the care you possibly can of him,
Alfred!
ALLMERS. As a schoolmaster, yes; but not as a father. And it is a father
that I want henceforth to be to Eyolf.
RITA. [Looking at him and shaking her head.] I don't think I quite
understand you.
ALLMERS. I mean that I will try with all my might to make his misfortune
as painless and easy to him as it can possibly be.
RITA. Oh, but, dear--thank Heaven, I don't think he feels it so deeply.
ASTA. [With emotion.] Yes, Rita, he does.
ALLMERS. Yes, you may be sure he feels it deeply.
RITA. [Impatiently.] But, Alfred, what more can you do for him?
ALLMERS. I will try to perfect all the rich possibilities that are
dawning in his childish soul. I will foster all the germs of good in his
nature--make them blossom and bear fruit. [With more and more warmth,
rising.] And I will do more than that! I will help him to bring his
desires into harmony with what lies attainable before him. That is just
what at present they are not. All his longings are for things that
must for ever remain unattainable to him. But I will create a conscious
happiness in his mind. [He goes once or twice up and down the room. ASTA
and RITA follow him with their eyes.]
RITA. You should take these things more quietly, Alfred!
ALLMERS. [Stops beside the table on the left, and looks at them.] Eyolf
shall carry on my life-work--if he wants to. Or he shall choose one
that is altogether his own. Perhaps that would be best. At all events, I
shall let mine rest as it is.
RITA. [Rising.] But, Alfred dear, can you not work both for yourself and
for Eyolf?
ALLMERS. No, I cannot. It is impossible! I cannot divide myself in this
matter--and therefore I efface myself. Eyolf shall be the complete man
of our race. And it shall be my new life-work to make him the complete
man.
ASTA. [Has risen and now goes up to him.] This must have cost you a
terribly hard struggle, Alfred?
ALLMERS. Yes, it has. At home here, I should never have conquered
myself, never brought myself to the point of renunciation. Never at
home!
RITA. Then that was why you went away this summer?
ALLMERS. [With shining eyes.] Yes! I went up into the infinite
solitudes. I saw the sunrise gleaming on the mountain peaks. I felt
myself nearer the stars--I seemed almost to be in sympathy and communion
with them. And then I found the strength for it.
ASTA. [Looking sadly at him.] But you will never write any more of your
book on "Human Responsibility"?
ALLMERS. No, never, Asta. I tell you I cannot split up my life between
two vocations. But I will act out my "human responsibility"--in my own
life.
RITA. [With a smile.] Do you think you can live up to such high resolves
at home here?
ALLMERS. [Taking her hand.] With you to help me, I can. [Holds out the
other hand.] And with you too, Asta.
RITA. [Drawing her hand away.] Ah--with both of us! So, after all, you
can divide yourself.
ALLMERS. Why, my dearest Rita--!
[RITA moves away from him and stands in the garden doorway. A light and
rapid knock is heard at the door on the right. Engineer BORGHEIM enters
quickly. He is a young man of a little over thirty. His expression is
bright and cheerful, and he holds himself erect.]
BORGHEIM. Good morning, Mrs. Allmers. [Stops with an expression of
pleasure on seeing ALLMERS.] Why, what's this? Home again already, Mr.
Allmers?
ALLMERS. [Shaking hands with him.] Yes, I arrived list night.
RITA. [Gaily.] His leave was up, Mr. Borgheim.